POSSESSED, PENTAGRAM, CRYPTOPSY, MANILLA ROAD, BELPHEGOR, ONSLAUGHT and AGALLOCH are the latest acts confirmed for SWR Barroselas Metalfest XVI which will take place April 24th – 27th in Barroselas, Portugal.

Legendary heavy metal pioneers and doom metal innovators PENTAGRAM are auditioning new guitar players. As previously announced, the revered guitarist Victor Griffin is performing his farewell shows during the Oct/Nov European Relentless Tour. He’ll be focusing on his solo career from this point on and the band and fans wish him all the best. Victor will forever be an important part of the “Ram Family.”

PENTAGRAM is now searching for the perfect player who can easily play the blazing, early blues-based, hard rock, proto-metal of the late Vincent McAllister as well as the doom metal mastery of the one and only Victor Griffin. Tone, chops, appearance, tour experience & availability (US and abroad so a passport is required), song writing skills, and sobriety are all important factors. The band will be writing/recording their follow up to the acclaimed Metal Blade release, Last Rites this coming December and January.

Someone who is close to the Washington, DC area is preferred but exceptions will be made for the perfect player.

Please send submissions to: PentagramAuditions@gmail.com
In other news, PENTAGRAM is gearing up to tour Europe and the dates will commence with the band’s first ever UK tour. In a celebration of Victor Griffin’s time with the band, PENTAGRAM will be playing the Decibel Magazine Hall of Fame album, Relentless, in its entirety. After the doom pioneers first-ever UK show in London in 2011, Bobby Leibling and the boys return for four shows with Gentlemans Pistols as support, kicking off in Bristol at The Fleece.

Eduardo “Topo” Topelberg, former drummer of Chile’s death metal legends PENTAGRAM, is running for political office. The 45-year-old former musician is hoping to become elected one of ten councilors of Ñuñoa, a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, on October 28.

Topelberg‘s campaign jingle, which can be seen below, has had more than twenty thousand views in less than two weeks.

Asked why he stopped drumming for PENTAGRAM, Topelberg told Paniko.cl, “I started to feel a pain in my right leg and I was diagnosed with neuropathy [nerve damage]. I had to stop playing and change some of my habits. I underwent gastric bypass surgery last year and lost 80 kilograms, Now I have two musical projects: OGRE, which performs covers of Camilo Sesto and other songs in Spanish, and my other band is ELECTROPÓNICO, a ‘tango trash’ project which I began before my trip to Buenos Aires and which I intend to finish mixing soon.”

PENTAGRAM earlier in the year announced the addition of drummer Juan Pablo Donoso (SADISM, THORNAFIRE) to the group’s ranks. The band’s guitarist/vocalist Anton Reisenegger explained at the time, “We all love Eduardo dearly and we wish him nothing but the best, but my impression is that playing drums is just not a priority for him anymore. I sincerely hope he proves me wrong in the future, as he will always be part of the PENTAGRAM family, but we needed a change if we wanted to move forward.”

Doom legends PENTAGRAM will be playing their classic debut Relentless (originally self-titled) in its entirety for the first time since the early 1980’s. According to a band update: “We will also be playing other beloved songs spanning the whole catalog including songs from our latest album, Last Rites.”

The PENTAGRAM documentary film Last Days Here is currently streaming in its entirety on German station ZDF. Watch it here: http://www.zdf.de

Directed by Don Argott and Demian Fenton (Rock School 2005) the 90-minute no holds barred tumultuous history of Bobby Liebling and this influential and self-destructive outfit is Time Out Critics choice. See Tom Huddleston’s review here: http://www.timeout.com

After weeks of extensive auditions, occult rock legends PENTAGRAM have found a full-time drummer in Virginia Native Sean Saley. Sean’s debut with the band begins during this summer’s European Festival Circuit, which starts with Sweden Rock in Sölvesborg, Sweden.

Sean stated before flying to his debut at Sweden Rock, “I’m more than excited, honored and ready to rock as part of the essential heavy metal institution that is Pentagram. They’re local favorites and idols to me.”

PENTAGRAM will be playing alongside rock and metal bands such as Blue Öyster Cult, Motörhead, Twister Sister, and The Darkness to name a few. For more info, go to http://www.swedenrock.com/. From there the band will continue to tour Europe before heading back home to the states.

Influenced by the likes of Bill Ward, Ian Paice, and Les Binks, drummer Sean Saley grew up on hard rock and heavy metal before taking a turn as drummer for DC underground punk legends GOVERNMENT ISSUE in the 80s. Anyone familiar with the Maryland metal scene may also remember Sean from 90s-era technical/doom/thrash wizards ANGSTROM, which also featured blind guitarist Torey Ferguson. Sean had been a longtime PENTAGRAM fan before joining the band in 2012.

In other PENTAGRAM news:

Sundance Selects / 9.14 Pictures, in conjunction with MPI Home Video will release the award-winning documentary, “Last Days Here” on DVD format in the US & Canada on July 31st. “Last Days Here” is based on the life and struggles of vocalist / founder Bobby Liebling and metal pioneers PENTAGRAM. The film most recently won the Jury Award for “Best Documentary” at the Calgary Underground Film Festival.